RH Trading

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Posts posted by RH Trading


  1. 1 hour ago, umesh said:

    Findandfundmycar.com, the online car finance aggregator website created by MotorNovo Finance, has axed dealer fees.

    Whereas before dealers were charged for placing cars on site thus funding cross media advertising, now they can list stock for free.  MotoNovo said this will help to get more dealers on board and grow the volumes of cars listed on the site.

     

    MotoNovo Finance’s Motor Division CEO Karl Werner: “In January, we set out on a mission to redefine the vehicle aggregation market and create the most dealer-centric platform.

    “We have proved that findandfundmycar.com can deliver results and now, we need to scale up and build upon the impact the platform has already had.

    “The way to do this at pace is to a model that is similar to a free subscription. Advertising on the platform is free, and payment is by results.”

    Findandfundmycar claims that dealers using the website see a 15% increase in finance proposals and a 8% increase in volume written.

    “You can’t argue with the figures. The platform is helping dealers sell more cars and sell more finance. What we aim to do now is rapidly grow stock levels and enhance the customer experience, giving better choice and attracting an even larger audience.”

    MotoNovo cited analysis by Morar HPI which revealed that 83% of customers who have used the platform would recommend it.

    “We have proved we can drive finance sales for dealers through the platform. We are backing the impact of findandfundmycar.com as a proposition that can drive finance and car sales with no up-front advertising costs,” said Werner.

    “Dealers have an opportunity to become the disrupters by changing their vehicle advertising approach and trying something entirely new – something with a truly dealer-dedicated promise.”

     

    Nothing new here, theres dozens of free sites not worth a fart. How will it get better? I paid almost £2000 earlier this year for findandfundmycar and got zero. no emails, phone calls, finance enquiries, walk ins, texts, nothing. Fair play to Motonovo for listening as we all said it should have been free from day 1. No doubt promising dealers sales and response will get more cars on their platform but this makes it worse for dealers if their audience figures remain the same, just means my competition just got bigger whilst the amount of car buyers going to their site dwindle, if it was working I'd gladly have paid for it. Will they be compensating us dealers who subsidised them at the beginning. There's no such thing as a free lunch, anything that's free is in my experience and to use a technical phrase  "a bag of wank"


  2. Any pain points or opportunities ahead of the September market? - August buoyant for us, seem to be getting a lot of response, sales YoY up 11% with same stock holding, trade prices due to dealer demand at auction seem to very strong would be biggest pain point and have no option but price stock accordingly,

    Is stock supply holding relative to demand? don't quite know what this means? We buy in line with demand so our cars don't tend to stick around too long. our days to turn is consistently around 34 days. the availability of the more in demand cars at auction seem ok but as mentioned above everyone's chasing the same cars so pushing up prices

    Will August finish ahead or behind 2017? ahead, interest in diesels has also gone up, notice my advert views of the diesel stock up in past 4-6 weeks, customer's haven't a clue or don't care about WLPT I find. Footfall strong and Advert views on AT up, so fingers crossed for a good Q3

    How would you describe the overall market? think it depends on how successful new car sales are and how well franchised dealers do, we tend to boom 4-6 weeks after new registration, pick up a lot of decent part ex but think the manufacturers discounts will start to end and cheap PCP deals will start to peter out.September started well (last weekend) still as strong as August thankfully

    you still in the IMDA Phil?

    • Like 1

  3. 12 minutes ago, Mark101 said:

    I am considering this and I do have a few £30, £20 RFL cars in stock.

    Unfortunately, on my side of the cul de sac most have drives, the other side is all huge three storey Victorian houses none of which have drives but many have 2-3 cars.  Their side of the road is carnage and my only saving grace is that although it looks like a forecourt (minus the bunting and signs) I DO NOT take up anyone elses already limited space.

     

    short term rentals on units are really cheap, ever consider taking the plunge? you don't need a fancy gin palace or main road forecourt, with 12 cars and the issues you have with storage and potential neighbour problems sounds like you're ready for that next step.


  4. I'd think long and hard before committing to a turntable. My accountant had a nosey around last year as was considering one myself. There are different sizes and some of the cheapest cant hold estates or bigger than an average medium sized saloon. For what they are I'm not convinced they'd actually help sell any more cars. You cant measure the impact and making sure you have loads of great photos (inside and out) and a decent walk round video is more important, They take up quite a bit of space as well and you cant use that valuable floor area for anything else. I've got a photo bay with great lighting, decent floor and backdrop but decided against a turntable based on cost and measurable return. Once its installed the depreciation as an asset is massive, its basically worthless, you cant really sell it and once its in, its in, difficult to relocate it without spending even more money. You're right to do homework, shop around if you are seriously looking and consider the size you need and relocation costs if you're not happy once its down


  5. Good for us so far, 22 away  this month from 36 advertised, deposits taken this morning on another 2. hope to end month around 30, which would be 4 more than Aug 2017 with same amount of stock. Just been steady for us all month and service has been fully booked, people looking to get their car done before holidays end I reckon


  6. I use the free application, track everything and looking back since 01/04/18, 5 of the conversations that initially started with chat assist out of hours have converted to sales out of 41 chats received in total up to 15/08/18. its easy to answer from your mobile and takes 10 seconds during the day and I'd prefer to answer them myself than the out of hours service to be honest so not a big deal for us.


  7. On ‎14‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 4:56 PM, Arfur Dealy said:

    My biggest loss last year was a..................

     

     

    Go on have a guess.........

     

     

     

    Range Rover Sport 4.2 SC..... That one laughed and sniggered over 3k out of me. 

    I didn’t learn then, I thought I’m not going to get bitten twice...

    Never ever every again....

    Ouch, and I'm sure the build quality will get so much better in future now that Disco's are being built in Slovakia instead of here in the Midlands


  8. On ‎11‎/‎06‎/‎2018 at 10:43 AM, Arfur Dealy said:

    My father in law is exactly the same, religiously cleaning it... he also has a tartan blanket and Panama hat on the parcel shelf :)

    I think we must be related, same here along with a massive AA road atlas in the boot (just in case) even though he's got sat nav. never goes further than 10 miles per trip and wont go on the motorways as "its full of bloody idiots these days"


  9. Good luck @Ccstew echo all the above, also important you give a great experience when people turn up which matches what they've seen online. nothing worse than a great, slick looking, professional website only for me to find a filthy shithole portakabin with faded bunting when I turn up. its a trust thing. Sometimes I trust a home trade more when buying a car than a dealer with a bombsite pitch, if you're a home trader you cant run away and hide or shut up shop and do a runner quite as easily

    • Like 1

  10. Father in law has a motability car and think he must be the exception to the rule, never bought a new car in his working life, now 86 he's got his first motab car after pestering him for ages about what he's entitled to, has a gorgeous 17 plate Civic and must say his is like new. Washes it religiously, always vacuuming it, gets it serviced regularly, (think it gives him something to do) he said this weekend " well its not my car really is it" - think it must be a generational thing. If I see that going through the hall I'm definitely having it

    • Like 2

  11. Thanks SC for starting a very positive post, generally these are all doom and gloom and we talk ourselves into a bloody depression

    Doing OK here, 6 so far for June, try and aim for 1 per day at least. Sold 8 more last month than May 2017 with same stock level (35) and thankfully margin up slightly on last year so its not at the cost of ppu, keep wondering when it'll dry up but surprisingly busy for this time of year. June and July generally very quiet but seems to have been a steady 12-15 sales per week since February. I've probably jinxed it saying that, World cup/Olympics also seems to keep people away, half of me prays for an early exit when England are playing in World cup or Euro's.

    don't know what the reason is, more people coming out of PCP's, Brexit fears not as bad as people suspected? I'm no expert but who cares as long as people keep buying I'm happy


  12. Hi Pete - I'd agree with Grant, At £4500 its a grand cheaper than anybody else's you say - can I ask why its so cheap? people will think there's something wrong perhaps. my experience is that people like to go in the middle, not the dearest as obviously they think its not good value, not the cheapest as it cheap for a reason, but somewhere between the two. I'm never the cheapest around here but seem to do OK, May was good for us and there's no way that Mazda should stick, had a few in past 12 months and always seem to do well.

    can you post a link to your advert mate? The guys on here give great feedback on presentation and photos etc. I pick up a lot of tips from the forum dealers.

    hope it picks up soon Pete

    Rob


  13. yeah sorry, iControl, its very marmite, but it works for me as a guide, took me a while to get used to it, the retail check is very good, use religiously on every car. colleague of mine in a main dealer had it and cancelled it as it didn't work for him, saves me a hell of a lot of time and reduced overage enormously. didn't really look at old stock but realised I had about half my cars sat on my forecourt for 150 + days, managed to whittle it down gradually and now none over 60 which helps bottom line. just keeps me alert and saves time for me

    • Like 1

  14. Hi Phil

    USED SALES - Just closed the month now and business is very brisk thankfully, sales volumes and profit up YoY, values holding strong, I use the control pricing tool and actually increased the price of 10 of the sold cars last month that were going into 60 days. They went within 72 hrs of repricing, for a total additional gross profit of £2280 across the 10. first time Ive known to have to reprice so many cars upwards and that's helped massively with maintaining margins.

    DEMAND - Showroom visits the same in terms of footfall but it just seems people were more ready to buy last month. Last bank holiday weekend very busy - I almost closed as I thought we'd never see anyone whilst the weather was so good. that's on the back of an OK April and good March. expecting it to start to tail off now as we get into the holiday season. June and July for us have typically been our slowest periods historically but the workshop is always busy thankfully and this keeps us ticking over when the sales side goes dead.

    SUPPLY - Started to buy more private stock now rather than go to physical auction as its got beyond a joke and needs sorting out. Dealer auction is like the wild west and very wary from buying from there as I've been stung a couple of times, exaggerated condition reports, non existant appraisals, dealers who aren't really dealers etc. and dealer auction know this full well and turn a blind out - please sort out Phil

    Bought 5 great, tidy low mileage, private cars end of April and they all went for very high margins, with probably less prep than I'd have needed to do if I'd bought from auctions, less headache and ZERO auction fees - Really think physical auctions need a massive overhaul, they're  prehistoric, a closed shop and not good for my health at all. Manheim own wewantanycar don't they? that doesn't help Phil - sourcing stock is hard enough without you snapping up cars along with BCA and WBAC - anything you can do much appreciated - Motors is garbage so don't try and flog that dead horse - put it out of its misery

    Phil as head of extranal affiars can you tell us your plans to help us with sourcing? that's my biggest issue with Manheim. Surecheck was OK in the beginning but stopped using it due to poor coverage - I take it as you started the IMDA that dealers can get discounts across Manheim then? ;)

    hope this helps

    Rob


  15. 6 minutes ago, Ocsltd said:

    Lose the paper mat and that will fly out...... :blink::lol:

    Ahh - well spotted, I can tell you have a fine eye for detail sir, thanks very much. Will do


  16. We've had this once, it was as MrC says above, previous owner must have set the limiter to 80 using the stalk also used for cruise control. I just talked her through it over the phone, took 10 mins. make it easy for them to rectify, you don't want to open a can of worms or get him coming back time and time again or wasting your technicians time. if its not rectified over the phone then suggest they bring it in. Lady was more than apologetic but now comes back to us for servicing work because she trusts us.


  17. 36 minutes ago, umesh said:

    I was asking the question and not stating that The IMDA has such a page, many dealers have clearly been named on here who have sold cars with issues, Me or The IMDA are not judges on anyone or anybody but simply asking should there be a place where dealers can give their experience good or bad with the cars they have bought which may help fellow dealers?

    An open review system which dealers could rate and sellers and have right to reply should they wish to do so. 

    No one wants to slate fellow dealers , this job is hard enough with some consumers, however I feel those dealers who time and time shaft other dealers need to understand we're all in the same game and it can't continue, usually the bigger boys who think we the smaller guys don't matter.

    The answer I guess is yes! something is needed and it has to be fair to all. 

     

    no one wants to slate fellow dealers? apologies Umesh I thought you said the IMDA forum wanted a section to name and shame other dealers. this is dangerous and should be strictly moderated independently and preferably not by other dealers so as not be left up to the court of public opinion. Once bitten twice shy is my experience, however I wont blame dealers if they unknowingly trade something to me where they weren't aware of a fault present at time I bought it. but its proving it and in most cases its your word against theirs. Some traders I avoid due to experience have traded on many cars to colleagues without hassle, its personal experience I guess. Who would moderate such a section on your forum if you had one?